iPhone 4.0

I had disappeared… almost a year… choose reason…
a) i was too busy with a new life
b) i lost my password
c) my image library is full
d) it takes too much effort

Seriously? I can’t remember but I felt like blogging what i found to be an amazing product by Apple (iPod Touch iOS4) just now and so I logged in. Looking below my post, and you will see that i left off almost a year ago with a HTC phone and an Apple mouse. Today I want to write about the HTC Hero I have now and the iPhone 4 that I want to get…

I am still using the HTC Hero… it was great and it was lousy… it gave me instant view of the my stock portfolio and my hotmail and a full facebook site with a direct photo upload link and a good camera… it has 1 day battery life and it drop calls or even missed it. That’s bad since a phone’s basic function is to make calls.

So, I traded in my Nokia E71 for it’s new brother, the E72 since that what it’s good for, making calls and lasting for days and its got free Ovi map!

 I was contemplating on getting the N8 but Nokia is just taking so too long to launch for its own good. But the Symbian on the E72 made me think twice of waiting for the N8 although it is going to be a major upgrade and it has a 12 mega pixel camera! Symbian is too slow! I can’t even surf properly, but not to condemn it because it’s not really a phone for surfing.

So why do I wanna get an iPhone, I am not even an iPhone fan. I bought an iPod touch 2nd Generation and I seldom used it. Well, sadly, the Android in HTC Hero made me got so used to entertainment and information on the go… and there isn’t really anything to look forward to in the Android world now even after upgarding my Hero’s OS from 1.5 to 2.1…

The iPhone had said “In so many ways, it’s a first”.
It’s the first with a good surfing OS, the first with the Wifi made so easy it’s idiot proofed, the first with a glass panel so hard it can crush a real apple without damaging the phone, the first to make a walkie talkie glamorous with its facetime software, the first to have a badly designed antenna and still lived to tell the good news to it’s shareholders, the first to sell online for SGD888 and people can still buy from you for SGD1300… how cool is that?

I bought one for my wife… and I am going to get one for myself next month when the HTC Hero’s contract is up.

Extract from Apple SG, Nokia SG

A Review: HTC Hero

I bought a HTC Hero last friday. Comes in a very small white hard box, so small you might thought it’s a budget, no frill phone.
First impression when I took it out of the box: Robust, heavy, feels good in the hand.

Power up the phone and I waited for maybe more than a minute to be able to start using the phone.

The optical ball seems like a good idea, but i seldom used it once I get used to poking the screen. The only time I used it is for the camera. You have to press the ball to capture an image, not good for self portrait. Second thing not good: no flash! So night shot is dark. Third thing not good: slow to take a picture. So, not really a camera replacement. Only good, u can pin point where you want the camera to focus by touching the screen.

The design is the update of the once-upon-a-time Nokia banana phone. That is not good as it does not work on a standard phone holder in the car, I dropped it thrice due to its shape. Now I placed it horizontal, since the screen can tilt anyway (it has accelerometer) but still not as secure.

Now all the good parts. The phone can be charged using your laptop via USB. Charging takes about the same time as most power hungry phone.

Touchscreen buttons are always not as good as a physical keypad but I managed to survive by used the virtual keypad, after a while, I can be equally as fast. As an after thought, it took me just as much time as any other phone to learn it, there after it’s fun all the way. I am still learning it now since I am still exploring, but it’s great dicovery.

Like most interactive user interface that is not an apple or microsoft, you can customise your “desktop” with the applications that you will use most of the time. The widgets are great. One thing that surprizes me (might not be new to others) is the clock that updates itself without any setting up. Actually, the phone did not need much of a setting up. It is up and running within a minute. It even telling me the weather of the exact location, not the country or city but the town! WiFi is auto, and no set up for the internet as well.

SMS is like a chat platform. Contact search is the same just that it doesn’t go back to the top when you have gone to the bottom, so that’s a boring part but the contact itself is now linked to facebook and twitter, and that is very neat! You can read about your contacts’ everyday living just like the facebook lite and, you can scroll through their recent updated photos just the same way as you would in your photo gallery, meaning, it’s fast and efficient. Viewing the photo, I have to add, is like photoshop.com. 

Its Android so it is everything google. Gmail is already there for you. Google map is great as a simple GPS, signal is good. Internet upload is fast. As is most latest touchscreen, you can pinch to enlarge or reduce and move through a full webpage, so I don’t need to view lite versions any more and the bookmark is like google chrome, I like! I tried the Youtube last night, streaming is fast, or maybe it’s already loaded somewhere. So far, all the applications I have used, there is no lagging!

Call wise, it’s loud and clear although sometimes it’s broken reception. Could be the service provider and not the phone’s fault though, I do not know for sure.

Synchronising with the PC takes a bit of setting up but after that its working the same way as most phones.

Power consumption is bad the last few days. I had to charge everyday, but what do you expect, I am exploring and using all the functions extensively… so not a good benchmark.

I am still happy as of today, it’s a definite major upgrade from my Nokia E71. Good phone!

Extract from HTC

Palm Pixi

Palm has officially announced its second webOS device called the Pixi. Like the Pre, this will be launched in US which means it’s a CDMA device and won’t work in Asia and Europe.
The handset sport a QWERTY keypad under a 2.63-inch 320 x 400 touchscreen. According to Palm’s Webpage, the Pixi doesn’t come with Wi-Fi, though it has Bluetooth and GPS. The company also announced back covers for this new smartphone designed by artists for those who like to personalize their Pixi.

Extract from Crave

Nokia Surge

“Launching… with a complete email solution, downloadable applications and full HTML browser with Flash support, Nokia Surge hits the sweet spot between a quick messaging phone and a smartphone because of its … strong feature set…”

“Designed in the U.S., this socially charged smartphone comes in a sleek slide form factor that supports social networking and messaging – and all on an open platform…”

Extract from Nokia PressRelease

LG Watch Phone GD910

First touch watch phone in the world to feature 7.2 Mbps 3G HSDPA compatibility, enabling high-speed data transmission and video phone calls using the built-in camera.
The Watch Phone is fully capable of sending text messages, making phone calls and incorporate voice recognition features, Text to Speech, Flash Interface, MP3 player, stereo Bluetooth and a built-in speaker.

This is better than Dick Tracy’s phone!

Extract from LG

HTC Hero

The new HTC Hero has a 3.2-inch HVGA (480 x 320-pixel) display, 7.2Mbps HSDPA connectivity, Wi-Fi, GPS and a 5-megapixel camera, a dedicated 3.5mm audio jack, supports Flash and has integrated Twitter and Facebook. HTC has also tweaked the Google Android operating system to create its Sense UI.
HTC is getting better and better…

Extract from crave

Nokia E72

The E71 upgrade. With 5 megapixels camera, a relocated headphone jack, and an optical mouse instead of a D-pad — a welcome upgrade for click-happy S60.

Extract from YouTube

Nokia E55

Nokia announced “world’s thinnest smartphone” (116 x 49 x 9.9 mm), the E55 with SureType keyboard. According to the press release, it’s got 28 days of standby time in its battery operating on GSM, as well as full Nokia Maps and assisted GPS with integration. Look for it this summer for 265 euros unsubsidized.

The phone sports a 2.4-inch QVGA screen, 3.2 megapixel camera, 3.5 mm headphone jack, 802.11 b/g, EGPRS, and Bluetooth 2.0.
Here comes my spare phone…

Extract from CNET Asia

Sony Ericsson Idou

“Everything that we have done to date has brought us to this point–we created the music phone category in 2005 selling over 100 million Walkman phones and we are now ready to unveil the next chapter in the evolution of the company–Entertainment Unlimited–giving consumers unlimited opportunities to share their entertainment experiences.”

Idou, a high-end 12-megapixel touchscreen handset that will deliver Sony Ericsson’s “Entertainment Unlimited”.  Idou will pack a Xenon flash module, a full touch-enabled media menu, 16:9 widescreen display, and run the Symbian Foundation operating system. When it launches, users can expect a unified Walkman, Cyber-shot and Java gaming experience with the ability to share media across multiple devices, from handsets to computers, to home A/V systems.

Extract from Crave

Samsung Ultra TOUCH

Samsung soon to be announced, Ultra TOUCH.
Like its name suggests, the Ultra TOUCH features a 2.8-inch AMOLED touchscreen which the company claims to have anti-scratch and anti-smudge properties. It runs on the TouchWiz software, so those of you using the SGH-F480 and the Omnia would already have a taste of the widgets-enabled user interface.

You can expect this 12.7mm-thin slider to pack A-GPS (with geotagging capabilities), HSDPA, Bluetooth stereo, 30fps VGA video recording, an 8-megapxel camera with dual-power LED flash and support for microSDHC cards up to 16GB.

Extract from Crave